


flowers in winter

by feralgayanddumbassaoyama



Series: and tomorrow there will be more of us [2]
Category: New X-Men: Academy X, X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: AU - Emma Frost Doesn't Hate Laura Kinney, Autistic Laura Kinney, Emma Frost Is A Good Teacher, Gen, Megan Gwynn (mentioned)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-12
Updated: 2020-11-12
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:14:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27525193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/feralgayanddumbassaoyama/pseuds/feralgayanddumbassaoyama
Summary: Laura is having some trouble in class. Ms. Frost helps her out
Relationships: Laura Kinney & Emma Frost
Series: and tomorrow there will be more of us [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2009101
Comments: 6
Kudos: 18





	flowers in winter

**Author's Note:**

> Laura's been at the school for like, two months, here.
> 
> also yes im still mad that emma hated laura for no good reason in academy x like...@ the writers, emma's fine with logan but not laura????? one of them kills people as a default solution to his problems and has been doing that for like 200 years. one of them is 16.

X-23 —  _ Laura — _ stared at the question on the board.

_ What do you want to be when you graduate? _ , it said, in Ms. Frost’s neat, easy to read handwriting.

She realized everyone else had already started on the prompt and moved her head to look at her own paper, scrawling the prompt across the top so that she wouldn’t forget.

She played with her pencil, between her forefinger and thumb, up and down and up and down and up and down, the rest of her body completely still.

Pixie was bouncing her leg up and down in the next seat over. Laura thought that Pixie was perfectly fine, if naïve, but the noise — and the faint faint faint squeaking of the chair it caused, plastic on metal — was like needles in her ears.

She couldn’t focus on anything but the noise. It was her entire world. Just her and her pencil and that god-awful  _ noise _ , and she wished it would stop but she couldn’t ask Pixie because then that would be Weird and Odd and she couldn’t afford that because she needed these people to trust her, she couldn’t alienate them, they were the reason she wasn’t in prison for being a monster, and—

“Laura? Are you quite all right?”

That was Ms. Frost. The noise had stopped.

Laura looked up. The room was empty, now, save her and Ms. Frost, the teacher leaning up against her desk in a faux-casual fashion, weight on her hands.

“I’m fine, Ms. Frost,” Laura said.

“Really?” she asked, “because you were very nearly hyperventilating there, dear, so I believe something is the matter.”

Laura looked out the window. The trees were in full bloom.

“This isn’t real,” she said.

“Well, of course it isn’t,” Ms. Frost said, walking over to the window. “It’s the middle of winter! But yes, I pulled you into my mindscape, and I see no reason we can’t at least have nice weather here.”

Laura looked at the back of her head. “There was a noise,” she said. “The chairs. Squeaking.”

“Ah, yes, the chairs do do that, don’t they? I believe David Alleyne was also having some issues with that. I’ve ordered in some rubber stops that should be arriving in the next week or so, but until then you can sit in the hall, if you’d like.”

“It’s too quiet out in the hall.”

Ms. Frost turned to face her. Laura looked at the whiteboard at the front of the room. Ms. Frost walked over, sitting next to her, in the chair Pixie was assigned.

“Are you having trouble with the question?” she asked.

Laura inclined her head marginally.

“Can tell me why you’re having trouble with it?” Ms. Frost asked.

Laura clenched and unclenched her teeth. 

“It… I haven’t. Thought about it. That much,” she said, surprising herself with her honesty.

Ms. Frost was silent.

“Alright, Laura, how about we start with this,” she said. “You don’t have to write down a job. You can just say the sort of person you want to be, or the things you want to do. Start with, ‘when I graduate, I want to… ‘ and then go from there. You can even write down the things you  _ don’t _ want to do. Then, after class, I want you to stay behind so we can go over what you wrote down. Does that sound good?”

Laura nodded.

“Good, good,” Ms. Frost said. “Now, do you have a phone? And a set of earbuds?”

Slightly confused, Laura nodded.

“And where in your bag do you keep those?”

Silently, Laura pointed to the smallest pocket of the recreation of her backpack in the mindscape.

“Okay, good,” Ms. Frost said. “Do I have your permission to get those out and unlock your phone?” she asked.

Even more confused, Laura once again nodded.

“ _ Excellent _ ,” Ms. Frost said. Laura couldn’t be sure without looking, but she thought she was smiling. “Right now, in the real world, I’m downloading a white noise generator app onto your phone. Some of my girls use it, and so does Julian, I believe, so it comes highly recommended. I’m going to let you go now, and when you get back to class I give you permission to use it. If you’re having problems in other classes, you can use it there too, and I’ll write you a slip. Does that sound good?”

Laura smiled. “Thank you, Ms. Frost,” she said.

“Of course, darling,” she reassured. “Only the best for my students.”

**Author's Note:**

> laura probably ends up writing something


End file.
